For anyone who has or is going to upgrade their hard drive

[lyons238]

first off i want to say im so happy with my 500gb seagate momentus 7200.4. i even exchanged it for a hitachi 7k500 but when i got the hitachi i noticed a significant battery loss, a slightly louder whooshing sound all of the time, and hotter temps than my seagate. everyone convinced me to get the hitachi, but after having both i switched right back to the seagate for obvious reasons.

this seagate has been working excellent, very quite, no noticeable drop in battery, and it's fast as hell. 19-21 sec boot time here.

but anyways, if you get a new hard drive, i recommend you install hdapm to keep your load cycle down and to avoid clicks if you have them. if you install smart utility and check your load cycle count, you will probably notice your load cycle count of your hard drive is close to 10k after about a month. that is just too high. hdapm keeps your load cycle way down. my first seagate was up to 10k after 3-4 weeks, as well as the hitachi. iv installed hdapm on this hard drive and im at 245 load cycle count after 3-4 weeks. which is great considering the drives are supposed to be good until 600k.

if you have trouble installing it i can help you. i had trouble as well but i have a method that works. i took multiple tutorials people had written and had to use a few steps from each.

i have provided the instructions on how to install hdapm below.

 

[vistadude]

Thanks for the info. Was the hitachi a 7200 rpm or 5400 rpm drive?

I think the current macbooks come with 250 GB Hitachi drives running at 5400 rpm, and they are nearly silent, pretty fast, and good for battery life. I wonder if the Seagate 7200 decreases the battery life a lot?

 

[lionheartednyhc]

OP, if you wouldn't mind could you go into a little bit more detail? I am a bit unfamiliar with pretty much everything you said

 

[sammich]

OP, if you wouldn't mind could you go into a little bit more detail? I am a bit unfamiliar with pretty much everything you said

He's suggesting that people installing new hard drives (or just install it anyway) because the default behaviour of OS X increases the hard drives 'load_cycle_count' extremely fast. This count is a rough indicator of lifespan of your drive (it basically counts the times the read head moves back from it's 'over the platter' position to a parked state).

My cycle count is already at 280k after 4.5 months. However, if you read the quoted part below, it's the start/stop count that really matters, and mine is only at 60.

From this discussion:

Some of that report is the result of a misunderstanding:

my Load_Cycle_Count is now at 718,694. this is very bad because the average Load_Cycle_count before failure for most hard disks is 600,000.​

This is simply not true. Most laptop drives have a specification that says that it should survive approximately half a million spin-up/spin-down. But Load_Cycle_Count is not spin-up/spin-down (which is tracked by Start_Stop_Count instead). Most drives specs don't say anything about the expected number of "load_cycle" that the drive is expected to survive. This high number of load_cycle is because the drive aggressively moves (unloads) the head away from the disk after a very short time of idleness. It does this not so much to save power as to avoid crashing the head against the disk in case of a shock. I.e. this number is high so as to avoid data loss.

Other drives only unload the heads when the disk spins up/down, so on some drives Start_Stop_Count=Load_Cycle_Count. Yet others don't even bother to report Load_Cycle_Count.

 

[lyons238]

the hitachi was a 7200rpm "7k500". just figured id let you know i liked the seagate a lot better. also hdapm seems to keep my start/stop cycle as well. my load cycle count is 245 and my start stop count is 20 after one month. which seems very normal and very acceptable.
also instead of setting my disk to max power setting, i set it to 200 using hdapm. i found that 200 was a good number that kept my load cycle count down but also doesn't run on max. just figured id give you guys a heads up if your buying a new hard drive so that you make the right choice and can make it last for years to come..

 

[Lurchdubious]

but anyways, if you get a new hard drive, i recommend you install hdapm to keep your load cycle down and to avoid clicks if you have them. if you install smart utility and check your load cycle count, you will probably notice your load cycle count of your hard drive is close to 10k after about a month. that is just too high. hdapm keeps your load cycle way down. my first seagate was up to 10k after 3-4 weeks, as well as the hitachi. iv installed hdapm on this hard drive and im at 245 load cycle count after 3-4 weeks. which is great considering the drives are supposed to be good until 600k.

if you have trouble installing it i can help you. i had trouble as well but i have a method that works. i took multiple tutorials people had written and had to use a few steps from each.

Thx for the info! Wow! My start/stop count is 342 after only a couple months! So what are your instructions for HDAPM??

OH, and I have the 320/7200 WD Black drive.

 

[lyons238]

Thx for the info! Wow! My start/stop count is 342 after only a couple months! So what are your instructions for HDAPM??

OH, and I have the 320/7200 WD Black drive.

I'll help you when I get home it will probably have to be a little later because I have classes till four then have some other things to do

 

[Lurchdubious]

I'll help you when I get home it will probably have to be a little later because I have classes till four then have some other things to do

That's totally fine. Thank you!

 

[lyons238]

That's totally fine. Thank you!

Yeah no problem and also iv heard the Scorpio blacks are greatly helped by hdapm ESP because some people were noticing clicking

edit: to vistadude. I notice no significant loss in battery with this seagate. Also no diff in heat or noise. With the hitachi I did. But I do notice a big speed gain ESP when combined w 4gb of ram.

Also just to be clear the stock drive for me was a 5400rpm toshiba. I then got a seagate 7200.4 then the hitachi 7200rpm 7k500 then switched back to the seagate.

 

[lyons238]

got out of my class a little early, so i have a few minutes. anyways here's the directions i used. if you still have problems i can try to help.

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1. download hdapm - http://mckinlay.net.nz/hdapm/

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2. show hidden folders. in terminal enter "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -boolean true;killall Finder" (without the quotes)

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3. make folder. in terminal write "sudo mkdir /usr/local/bin" (without quotes) then hit enter, and enter in your password. this makes the folder hdapm must go in (usr/local/bin)

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4. double click the hdapm that you downloaded, and copy the actual program not the .plist and paste it in usr/local/bin. you can find the folder in finder just click your hard drive -> usr -> local -> bin. paste hdapm in there.

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5. find library/launchdaemons. paste the .plist in there.

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6. in terminal enter "sudo ~/hdapm disk max" (without quotes) - this sets your disk to max settings and keeps the load cycle down. i set mine to 200 instead of max. i forget how i did that but if you want to do that i can find out.

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7. in terminal type "sudo cp ~/hdapm /usr/local/bin/" (without quotes) enter.
then type "sudo cp ~/hdapm.plist /Library/LaunchDaemons/" (without quotes) enter.
- This will run hdapm every time you boot.

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8. in terminal type "hdapm disk0 max" - it should say success. this means hdapm is now usable.

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9. restart your mac. when your booted up. open up console. spotlight -> search console. in console search hdapm. hit enter. it should say something like disk success disk set to max 0fxe. if it says success your good.

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10. if you dont get success in console after the reboot do this...
In terminal enter "hdapm disk0 max" enter
in terminal "cd /Library/LaunchDaemons/" (without quotes) press return
type "sudo chown root:wheel hdapm.plist" (without quotes) press return. type your admin password and press return
- i recommend doing step 10 anyway because sometimes mine wasn't working when i rebooted, this step made sure hdapm loaded every boot

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11. reboot, search hdapm in console and see if you get success.

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12. hide hidden folders. in terminal enter "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -boolean false;killall Finder" (without the quotes)

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now watch your load cycle and start/stop count slow down dramatically. also as i said above. i like to run my disk at 200 instead of max which is like 288 i think. i can find out how to change this for you if you would like to do the same. basically at 200 it still keeps your drive from aging and acting up but it doesn't run at max power.

let me know if you have any problems.

 

[lionheartednyhc]

Awesome, thanks for the instructions. Will be putting in a new drive later today.

How does this work with a dual drive (hdd/SSD) combo? Obviously the SSD does not need these setting. If I do do this, will it only change the settings for the HDD?

Or do I need to specify a drive, etc?


Thanks!

 

[lyons238]

Awesome, thanks for the instructions. Will be putting in a new drive later today.

How does this work with a dual drive (hdd/SSD) combo? Obviously the SSD does not need these setting. If I do do this, will it only change the settings for the HDD?

Or do I need to specify a drive, etc?


Thanks!

I'm not sure about that one. I'm guessing yu have osx installed on the ssd so I think it affects the drive osx is installed on. If you just have music and stuff on your other drive it should be fine. I think. Wish I could help more.

 

[lionheartednyhc]

I'm not sure about that one. I'm guessing yu have osx installed on the ssd so I think it affects the drive osx is installed on. If you just have music and stuff on your other drive it should be fine. I think. Wish I could help more.

Ok, guess I wont mess with it then. If anyone knows more, I would appreciate hearing about it!

 

[lyons238]

Ok, guess I wont mess with it then. If anyone knows more, I would appreciate hearing about it!

yeah im pretty sure your fine, because your non ssd drive will only be in use when your grabbing a file from it. im pretty sure only if osx is installed on the disk you should use hdapm. but maybe someone more knowledgeable than me can help you. i know spinnerys knows just about everything i could imagine to ask lol. but you better try to search around yourself before you ask him.

 

[lyons238]

whats the update for anyone who tried this?

 

[unixperience]

Awesome, thanks for the instructions. Will be putting in a new drive later today.

How does this work with a dual drive (hdd/SSD) combo? Obviously the SSD does not need these setting. If I do do this, will it only change the settings for the HDD?

Or do I need to specify a drive, etc?


Thanks!

a bit late but in any event
the full command is hdapm disk0 max
I assume you change the disk0 to wherever your hdd is, assuming you put it in the cd drive it should be :
hdapm disk1 max


also to change the defaults, simply open the .plist file in your favorite texteditor and change the fields these are the main ones to change, about midway down the file:

<array>
<string>/Applicartions/Utilities/hdapm</string>
<string>disk0</string>
<string>200</string>

as you can see I hanged the default location from /usr/bin/hdapm to /Application/utilities/hdapm this is because i put the hdapm file inside my utilities folder rather than in the predefined area

the second line where it says disk0 change that to disk1

the last line used to say max, but i heard sometimes that will disable sleep so i turned it to 200

now save the file again and your golden

*EDIT* i too have the seagate momentus 7200.4 its a great drive, but on my macbook it does use a bit more energy than the stock hdd, lightning fast though

 

[happle]

i cant believe my thread is still going haha. i made this post quite some time back.